


Turbulence

by hynggie



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Anxiety, Donghyuck freaks out a little, Fear of Flying, M/M, Mark is an angel, Meet-cute but on an airplane, They're really just there to build plot, norenmin if you squint - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-26 02:04:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19758358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hynggie/pseuds/hynggie
Summary: Donghyuck would do anything to have a flight go smooth, without a single bump to the aircraft. However, with the addition of a boy whose glasses just can't seem to stay on, maybe a little turbulence wouldn't be so bad afterall.





	Turbulence

Donghyuck scowls as he looks at his own hand, held in a fist against three others poised as paper. The three victorious boys celebrate being able to sit side by side on their 4 hour long flight, while Donghyuck has to sit alone in the row behind them. “Hey, at least it’s a window seat,” Renjun says as they stand side by side with boarding cards ready in hand. Jeno and Jaemin stand in front of them, both bouncing with excitement as they creep further up in line.

If he was being honest, Donghuyck doesn’t really mind sitting without his friends. The three of them don’t know how much certain parts of the flight stress him out, and having them sit and worry beside him might’ve just made the situation worse. He’s flown a few times before, but he can never get used to some of the sensations in the air, and the fact that there’s physically nothing he can do to stop them.

Jeno and Renjun race for the window seat as the four of them step onto the plane, the former ending up at the row first. Jaemin already said he didn’t mind sitting in the middle, saying he’d just have twice the opportunity to use the others as headrests. He repeats this to Renjun as he defeatedly slumps into the aisle seat, saying he’s welcome to use his shoulder to sleep if it were any consolation.

Donghyuck’s row is empty when he sits down behind Jeno in the window seat. There’s a lump already forming in his stomach as he puts his backpack under the seat and tries to get comfortable. He’s not necessarily scared of flying, but things like taking off, landing and turbulence never sat well with him. He’d tried telling himself all those things are perfectly safe, otherwise the planes wouldn’t be allowed in the air in the first place, but his mind liked to think otherwise.

As he’s putting away his unnecessary anxiety another boy sits down beside him. Their eyes meet briefly, and short friendly smiles are exchanged, but not much more. Donghyuck sneaks a few extra glances at him as he gets situated in his seat. Wide starry eyes sit hidden behind a pair of glasses, daintily perched on the tip of his nose as he rummages through his bag. He has to look away quickly as the boy sits back up, almost catching him staring.

...

About an hour into the flight they hit the first bout of turbulence. It’s mostly fine, nothing major. The problem Donghyuck runs into is the fact that it lasts a while, about 8 minutes according to how many songs he’d listened through and blasted loudly in his ears. Being sat for so long concentrating on staying calm, he managed to work up a headache.

The air he pulls in through his nose is stale and too cold and does nothing to calm the pounding in his head. Small sips of water only manage to deplete his bottle, so he opts to look through his carry-on luggage. The backpack is filled to the brim with things he now realizes is unnecessary; snacks to last several hours, fluffy socks and an extra jacket make up most of the contents. No pain reliever in sight. 

A deep sigh rumbles in the pits of his lungs, but he wills it to stay contained. There’s no use getting more worked up and making the whole thing even more unbearable. One quick peak between his friends’ seats tells him at least Renjun and Jaemin are asleep. He pokes a hand through the gap beside Jeno’s seat and the wall of the plane and nudges his arm. The boy startles and turns slightly, taking out an earbud to hear him.

“Do you have any aspirin? I have a major headache,” Donghyuck says leaning his head against the cold wall. Jeno raises a finger as a sign to wait as he turns around to just about empty his bag. Before turning to Donghyuck with a pitied expression he makes sure there’s none hiding in the sleeping boys’ luggage. “Sorry, must’ve put it in my suitcase,” He says with regret, Donghyuck quickly waving him off saying it’s his fault for forgetting his own in the first place. 

He falls back into his seat as Jeno apologizes again and turns around. Donghyuck lets his eyes flutter shut as he brings his hands up to rub semi-soothing circles into his temples. The air feels like it’s getting heavier and more frigid the longer he tries to fill his lungs. The fresh air he desperately needs to feed his brain too far away to do any good.

Donghyuck almost jumps out of his seat as a hand gently touches his shoulder. His eyes snap open as he looks over to once again be faced with the puppy-eyed boy. He looks concerned, brows furrowed, and lips drawn into a minuscule frown. “I have some aspirin, if you want one?” he says it almost like a question, removing his hand in the process and letting it join the other in his lap. Donghyuck furrows his brows and lets his shoulders drop and hands fall to his own lap as well.

The boy seems to sober up, eyes widening and eyebrows raising. “I just, I heard you asking the guy in front of you for some for your headache. And I have a whole new box of them, so there’s no problem. Only if you want one though,” he rambles on, making Donghyuck let his own features relax as he feels a little smile tug at his lips.

“I’d really appreciate it,” is all he says, feeling his eyes crinkle a bit at the corners. The boy smiles and quickly fishes the box out of his backpack, popping out one of the tablets and letting it drop into Donghyuck’s hand. He quickly uncaps his bottle and takes a good swig to swallow the pill, scrunching his nose as he feels it scrape the back of his throat. 

The other boy still looks anxious and concerned as he screws the bottle cap back in place and reaches out to place it back into the little pocket on the back of Jeno’s seat. “Thank you, uh,” Donghyuck says, silently hoping to get a name to match the face. “Mark, i’m Mark. And it’s no problem,” he says with an easy smile, zipping closed his bag and sitting back in his seat. Mark, with the puppy eyes and glasses barely staying in place, keeps his headphones resting around his neck and eyes trained on the boy in front of him. “Donghyuck,” he replies, letting his own earpiece rest in his hand and a smile envelope his features.

...

The air in the cabin seemed fresher after speaking with Mark. The two of them talk for a long time until a large yawn escapes from the stranger. Donghyuck leans back in his seat and peeks out the window to watch the clouds below. A white layer of pillows covering the entirety of the landscape as they fly high above. Now feeling calm and relaxed he takes a glance at the backs of his friends’ heads. He can only see Jaemin and Jeno’s, the latter having his against the youngest shoulder, Renjun’s likely resting on the opposite side. Turning his head slightly to the left he sees Mark peacefully dozed off.

Those poor glasses of his put in their best effort, but in his sleep, he’s managed to not only let them slip further, but also sit crookedly at the tip of his nose. The round frames look lopsided in their current state, but Donghyuck decides after quick deliberation that they most definitely would suit his face when they’re on properly. The urge to reach out and straighten them is hard to contain, but Donghyuck forces his hand to stay put in his lap no matter how much he’d love an excuse to get a little closer look at Mark’s features.

He’s startled out of his thoughts as a vicious rumble rips through his seat, making him violently shake and grasp onto the ends of both armrests. Someone over the intercom soon after announces another patch of turbulence, this one a bit rougher than the last. 

The few times he opens his eyes it’s only to look at the white coloring of his knuckles clutching tightly at the armrests. He wouldn’t dare look out the window, all he can imagine is seeing a wall of angry dark gray clouds rushing past. Or somehow maybe the plane is sideways, it definitely feels that way to him and he wouldn’t expect much less.

What he doesn’t expect however is a hand covering his and fingers spreading apart his own to force them to soften the death grip he has around the armrest. Donghyuck looks over at Mark with a confused expression, feeling sweat bead at his brow and at the back of his neck. The boy doesn’t do or say anything. All he does is give him a gentle smile, slip his hand underneath Donghyuck’s to make him grip his hand instead of the hard bulky armrest sitting between them.

There isn’t much time to ask questions before another thundering shake makes Donghyuck snap his eyes shut. He reflexively squeezes Marks hand and makes a mental note to apologize later for basically strangling the boys’ soft hand. He also makes a note that yes, Mark’s hand is very soft, and he doesn’t mind holding onto it for dear life.

After the seatbelt sign above is turned off and the crew reassure the passengers that the turbulence is over, Donghyuck takes a deep breath and lets it out long and slow. His whole body is still tense, and he’s exhausted from the ordeal even if it was much shorter than the last one. “You okay?” Mark asks tentatively as he watches Donghyuck breathe evenly in through the nose and push the air out of his lungs and out of his mouth. He nods his head and looks at the boys almost sad eyes with the tiniest smile he can muster. “Yeah, sorry. I just get really anxious about the plane shaking,” he says shrugging his shoulder. 

Mark says it’s totally normal, and that he would react the same way if he hadn’t flown as much as he had from a young age. He reveals that landings are often the thing that stresses him out the most, “the feeling of the whole thing just bouncing on the runway like that? Makes my stomach churn every time,”. 

It takes a whole conversation later for Donghyuck to realize the two of them are still holding hands. He doesn’t think Mark realizes as he keeps talking about who he’s visiting and where they’re going, all while his thumb traces a path up and down the side of his pointer finger. Heat pools in Donghyuck’s cheeks and he’s thankful Mark doesn’t comment on it, because judging by how hot the air suddenly feels it is definitely visible. He makes the easy decision to keep his hand in place though, finding it much harder to pull it away than he would’ve anticipated. 

There was something weird about how natural and easy it felt to have his hand in Marks. His hands were soft, but a little calloused in spots like his fingertips. Maybe flying wouldn’t be so bad if he could have an excuse to keep holding his hand.

...

Donghyuck managed to win their second round of rock, paper, scissors on the way home from their trip. It leaves Jeno in the seat behind the three others. He sulks and pretends it’s the end of the world that he has to sit alone and be bored the entire flight, fully knowing he’ll fall asleep eventually anyways. As they all walk onto the plane however, Donghyuck sees the boy, Mark, from their first flight down. 

“Hey Jeno, we can switch if you want, I don’t mind sitting behind again,” he says casually, hoping there’s no questions asked and that he doesn’t notice that his ears are turning a subtle shade of red. Jeno gives him a funny look before taking a glance at their seats and recognizing Mark. With a sly grin he shrugs and takes the aisle seat beside Jaemin, getting confused looks from him and Renjun. 

Jeno had been the reason why Donghyuck had to let go of Marks hand in the first place. He’d looked back at him after landing, asking if he thought the stewards would yell at him if he got up before the plane was parked. When he spotted their interlocked hands however, his eyebrows shot into his hairline. Donghyuck had been forced to tell him what happened later that day and Jeno ate it up, praising himself for not packing aspirin in his carry-on. 

Donghyuck clears his throat and Mark looks up from his phone, surprise painting his expression. A grin quickly slides into place and he gets up to let him sit down in the window seat. Once Donghyuck is situated and his bag is stuffed under Renjun’s seat he falls back into his seat and glues his eyes to Mark’s. He’s already looking at him before their eyes lock, his brown eyes shining almost brighter than his smile.

“Hey,” he says. “Hi,” Donghyuck says back, and they both sit there with stupidly big grins on their faces. A giggle bubbles out of Mark and Donghyuck feels his heart fill with butterflies flying a mile a minute. At this rate he could fly himself home just hearing Mark laugh as the little critters flap their wings rapidly.

It doesn’t take long before their hands find each other, takeoff comes faster than Donghyuck had anticipated. He’s grinding his teeth as his leg bounces, mind running a mile a minute with the most dangerous possible outcomes. It all stands still for a second as he feels Mark’s almost familiar hand grasp his own and let them both sit on the armrest.

Messages fly over their heads about the days flight, something about the flight duration and what time it’s going to be when we land back home. The message Donghyuck usually would die to hear is the one that almost makes a pout appear on his lips. “We have great flying conditions today; we’re predicting very little turbulence for today’s flight!”

He thinks maybe Mark will let go of his hand upon hearing the announcement, but instead his grip tightens just a smidge. He looks hopefully at the boy in question and sees a shy little smile dancing on his lips. The same glasses he wore a week before are sat in their correct spot and Donghyuck had been right, they definitely suited him.

With a little squeeze back Donghyuck relaxes in his seat, looking out of the window as the scenery below gets blurry and the clouds seep into view. They look less scary that day, maybe it’s because he knows they don’t pose a big threat of causing turbulence. The swarm of hummingbirds in his chest and the warmth of the hand held tightly in his own say the cause is something much different. 

He turns back to the source of said warmth and sees his eyes have shut with his head slightly tipped forward. His glasses slowly but surely start slipping the longer his head stays tilted, ending up dangerously balancing at the end. As he watches Mark doze off with their hands still tightly wound together, Donghyuck gingerly pushes his glasses back into place with his free hand. Mark's eyes flutter open for a second and lock onto the others', before he closes them once again with a contented smile gracing his features.

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this on the plane ride home a couple of weeks ago and finished it sometime last week. I didnt really plan on ever posting it anywhere, but here we are I guess!


End file.
